


see you soon

by running2u



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Character Death, Fluff, Introspection, No Angst, i guess??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 17:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/running2u/pseuds/running2u
Summary: there is something after death.there has to be.





	see you soon

**Author's Note:**

> ok so!!! ik it's tagged character death but it isn't gory or anything, it's just jisung thinking about death but not in a suicidal way idk how to explain it?? but it isn't bad. i'm just clearing it up now in case it triggers anyone!!

there is something after death. 

 

there has to be.  

 

that’s what jisung tells himself, as he gets older and watches his older friends die before him.

 

it’s what gets him through the years as his friends start disappearing, each one promising to see each other soon, as some sort of twisted consolation. because no one wants to die, but no one wants to leave their family either, so the medium is a dying person hoping to see a living person soon in the afterlife. 

 

but what even is the afterlife? 

 

is it the regal heaven that the stories claim? is it nothingness? is it like the underworld in greek mythology, where everyone goes to the same place underground? or is it more like, if you were a good person, congrats you get to take the highway, but if you were bad, sucks you have to take the low roads? 

 

jisung can’t say for certain, and he doesn’t even know if something even _happens_ after life. 

 

while the sentiment behind his friends’ parting messages of seeing each other soon is always nice to consider, it also causes so much anxiety in jisung because what if they don’t?

 

what if they don’t see each other soon? would they even be able to remember themselves after they’ve died, or do they go straight into reincarnation? what if there’s an abyss, and jisung just sits there for eternity, always remembering his friends and what they promised each other, but never being able to actually have it happen? 

 

jisung loves his friends, alive or dead, and never seeing them again would ruin him. 

 

but he doesn’t like thinking about that too often. because jisung is old, and thinking about it too much and worrying excessively over something he can’t control would definitely speed up his due date. 

 

some days jisung can feel it, can feel something in him shriveling up, withering away like a dying rose, and one day his last petal will fall and that’ll be the end. 

 

rather than be scared, jisung is accepting of it, has made his peace with death long ago, and is even ready for it. 

 

so that’s why, when his breath stutters while he’s trying to watch the 6 o’clock news and it seems as if everything is moving slower when he eats dinner, he doesn’t panic. instead, he goes up to his room, grabbing his favorite picture of all of his friends and him from the picture shelves lining the hallway on his way up. he doesn’t call anybody - he’s old, people have been expecting this, and none of his family lives close enough anyhow - but he does get comfortable on his bed, ready to sleep for the last time. 

 

there is a inkling of fear in the back of his head, where he worries and worries, because no matter how much you try to convince yourself you’ve accepted death, it’s still scary when it actually happens. he tries his best to ignore it, instead deciding to focus on the picture he holds in his hands. 

 

it’s an old picture, a really old picture, back from his and his friends’ undergrad/grad school days respectively, where all eighteen of them had gotten a picture together over the summer at a beach house they’d rented for a couple weeks. none of them were actually focusing on the cameraman, too busy laughing at each other, and trying not to fall into the pool as they tried to push others in. jisung can remember that summer clearly, even with the number of years between now and then, and he remembers that being the happiest he’s ever been. 

 

clutching it to his chest as he feels the first tugs of sleep, he kisses it and whispers, “see you guys soon.” a moment later, jisung is asleep. 

 

when he wakes, it’s to a white ceiling, and for a moment jisung thinks he didn’t actually die and all those theatrics were for nothing. but then a face pops above him wearing the widest smile he’s ever seen. 

 

“ _jisungieeeee!_ ” the person jerks him up before slamming him into their chest. 

 

“wh-” jisung short circuits, before realization dawns on him. “oh my god, _chenle?!_ "  

 

“come on, come on! the others are gonna be so fucking _stoked_ ,” chenle says, yanking jisung with him as they run to a… pool? 

 

jisung digs his heels into the ground, effectively stopping them from going any further.

 

“what, what’s wrong?” chenle asks, concern flooding his features when jisung doesn’t respond. 

 

looking around, jisung takes in the familiar setting, realizing with striking clarity that it was the beach house they’d rented when they’d taken the picture he’d fallen asleep with. slowly, jisung turned to the older boy in front of him, gasping sharply when he really looks at chenle. 

 

“you’re - oh my _god_ , you’re fucking - holy _shit_.”  because chenle doesn’t look like the elderly man he died as, but instead has reverted back to the young boy he was when they stayed at the beach house. glancing down at himself, jisung gasps again. he no longer is as old as he was, but is now as young as he was back when he was still in college. 

 

“it’s - we’re back to the time when we rented that beach house,” jisung mumbles in amazement. chenle laughs, slinging an arm around the younger. jisung continues, “it’s my happiest memory… is after death living in your happiest memory for eternity?” 

 

chenle smiles. “yeah i think so. now c’mon! everyone is ready to see you again!” 

 

jisung smiles in return, about to take off with chenle, before something crosses his mind and he stops. “chenle... is this your happiest memory?” 

 

chenle’s eyebrows furrow. “what do you mean? i’m here aren’t i?” 

 

“yeah, but…” jisung pauses, not really wanting to speak what he was thinking out loud, in case it actually was true. “is it really everyone’s happiest memory? i mean, we’ve all lived long lives so it just doesn’t seem logical that everyone’s happiest memory is the exact same as mine… is it just mine, and i imagine everyone to be here because my happiest memory includes everyone? and everyone else is imagining something else where a clone of me is appearing because i’m in their happiest memory, which isn’t the same as mine?” 

 

chenle gapes at him. “what road trips did your brain even _go_ on to reach that conclusion?” 

 

jisung whines, “chenle, _stooop_. i’m serious!” 

 

sighing, he says, “this is my happiest memory, too, and i’m 99% sure it’s everyone else’s. but seriously, you’re dead, stop thinking. you don’t need to do that anymore. now let’s _go_ ,” chenle finishes with a huff, tugging on jisung’s arm in the direction of the beach house. 

 

laughing, jisung follows, and soon both boys are running, whooping as they near the house. chenle leads him through the house into the backyard where the pool is, along with a ginormous banner that reads “congratulations on dying!!!” in big, fat block letters. 

 

and there, beneath the sign, are all his friends. taeil, taeyong, johnny, yuta, ten, doyoung, kun, jaehyun, sicheng, jungwoo, yukhei, mark, donghyuck, renjun, jaemin, and jeno. all of them are there, smiling wide and talking as if it hadn’t been more than a day since they’d last seen each other. 

 

jisung’s eyes well up, and he half laughs half sobs as he sprints to them, yelling at the top of his lungs, chenle right behind him. 

 

they all turn to see jisung and everyone brightens up, surging as one to meet the boy. arms reach out, grabbing onto anyone they can, with jisung in the middle. they all wear smiles, faces nearly splitting with joy, and jisung couldn’t focus on anything other than the pure exhilaration flooding through his veins, even if he wanted to.


End file.
